China Reflection Paper

My initial thought of China was that it was going to be over crowed and everything would be uncomfortable do. I imagined every city to be like pictures people show the pictures of crowded streets and packed cars. It was quite the opposite. Yes it was crowed in some places, but there were a lot of beautiful, peaceful and magnificent places we visited. We visited 6 cities Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Hangzhou Wuxi, and Shanghai. All of the cities were unique in their own ways and I learned things traveling to each of them. We traveled by plane, boat, subway, car, bus, and even a bullet train. The first day was a long day of travel and we landed in Beijing around 8pm. This was my first time ever being do far from and it was an exciting feeling. Our group was all pretty new with each other, but right away we clicked and started making friendships. After we checked into our hotel we went on our first walk. It was a lot different then and any city I have been and I was excited right away. We had a beer while walking down the street (who knew you could do that) and smoked a cigarette with the group. At this point in time I knew nothing about the people and how they would treat us, but after buying a beer and one walking up to me right away with a bottle opener after seeing me struggling I knew it was going to be a great trip. Not because of the beer although everyone loves beer, but because of how nice everyone was to us that first three hours we were in Beijing. The first couple days were definitely a culture shock. Everything was new! Our tour guide was a little hard to understand and it was a lot hotter than expected. On the first full day I was glad I brought a camera with. We went to the heart of Beijing. The Forbidden City, Tian’anmen square, A bike ride through the oldest part of Beijing, a Tea ceremony and to top it off we all got foot massages. This one day set the pace for the whole trip and I think got us all over our culture. I wish however that this day